Associations between memory traces emerge in a generic neural circuit
model through STDP

Abstract:

The formation of associations between memory items, that enables recall of one
memory component by activating another, is a fundamental operation of higher
brain function. Recent neural recordings provide insight into the way how
such associations are encoded on the level of neurons in the human medial
temporal lobe (MTL). We show that important features of these experimental
data can be reproduced by a generic neural circuit model consisting of
excitatory and inhibitory spiking neurons with data-based shortand long-term
synaptic plasticity. A key result of the experimental data and the model is
that the association process causes the emergence of overlaps between the
assemblies of neurons that encode the memory components. These overlaps
appear in the experiments and the model at the same time when the association
becomes computationally functional. Hence our model elucidates computational
and plasticity processes that are likely to shape memory systems in the
brain.